Date: September 2nd 2010

There are 3 messages totalling 157 lines in this issue

Topics of the day:

ASTRONAUTS LINDA GODWIN AND SCOTT ALTMAN LEAVE NASA
FUTURE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CREW HOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE
WATER DEEP IN EARTH KEY TO SURVIVAL OF OLDEST CONTINENTS

Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 08:26:55 -0500 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: ASTRONAUTS LINDA GODWIN AND SCOTT ALTMAN LEAVE NASA

September 1, 2010

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

Michael Curie Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100

Report #H10-204

ASTRONAUTS LINDA GODWIN AND SCOTT ALTMAN LEAVE NASA

HOUSTON -- NASA astronauts Linda Godwin and Scott Altman have announced plans to leave the agency Godwin will retire and Altman will take a job in the private sector

Godwin joined NASA in 1980 and worked in the Payload Operations Division She was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1985 A veteran of four spaceflights, Godwin logged more than 38 days in space, including more than 10 hours during two spacewalks She flew aboard STS-37 in 1991; served as payload commander of STS-59 in 1994; and flew on STS-76 in 1996 and STS-108 in 2001 Godwin also supported numerous technical assignments within NASA's Astronaut Office and most recently served as the assistant to the director for exploration, Flight Crew Operations Directorate

"Linda's 30-year career at NASA was filled with contributions to the human spaceflight mission," said Brent Jett, director of Flight Crew Operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston "She should be proud of her service to the agency and the country "

Altman, a retired U S Navy captain, joined NASA in March 1995 He also has flown four shuttle missions, logging more than 51 days in space He was the pilot of STS-90 in 1998 and STS-106 in 2000, and was commander of the final two missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, STS-109 in 2002 and STS-125 in 2009

Altman also performed other technical duties within the agency, including temporary duty to NASA Headquarters as deputy director of the Requirements Division of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate Most recently, he served as chief of the Exploration Branch of the Astronaut Office

"Scott has been a tremendous contribution to the astronaut corps and this agency," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office "In his 15 years with NASA, he has performed flawlessly and demonstrated leadership in every position he's served He will be greatly missed "

For complete astronaut biographical information, visit:

http://www jsc nasa gov/Bios

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www nasa gov

#

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Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 12:39:35 -0500 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: FUTURE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CREW HOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE

September 1, 2010

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

Joshua Buck Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100

Report #M10-123

FUTURE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION CREW HOLDS NEWS CONFERENCE

HOUSTON -- A multinational crew that will live and work on the International Space Station will hold a news conference at 1 p m CDT on Wednesday, Sept 15, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston

The news conference will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website The crew also will answer questions from reporters at participating NASA centers and from those in Europe

NASA astronaut Cady Coleman and her crewmates Dmitri Kondratiev, of the Russian Space Agency, and Paolo Nespoli, of the European Space Agency, will participate in individual round-robin interviews, in person or by phone, following the news conference The crew also will participate in a photo opportunity for reporters at Johnson

U S and foreign media representatives planning to attend the briefing must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 4 p m on Tuesday, Sept 7 To participate in the round-robin interviews, reporters should contact the Johnson newsroom by 4 p m on Monday, Sept 13

Coleman, Kondratiev and Nespoli will constitute three of the six crew members for both Expedition 26 and 27 They will launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in mid-December

They will join NASA's Scott Kelly, who will command the station, Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka Kelly, Kaleri and Skripochka will launch in a separate Soyuz on Oct 7 and arrive at the orbiting laboratory Oct 9

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www nasa gov/ntv

For more information about the crew members and their mission, visit:

http://www nasa gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition26

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Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 13:30:07 -0500 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: WATER DEEP IN EARTH KEY TO SURVIVAL OF OLDEST CONTINENTS

Sept 1, 2010

William Jeffs Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

Report #J10-020

WATER DEEP IN EARTH KEY TO SURVIVAL OF OLDEST CONTINENTS

HOUSTON -- Why do we still find rocks from the Archean, one of the earliest geological eons on Earth dating from about 3 8 to 2 5 billion years ago? This is an apt question as our planet is one of the most dynamic in the solar system EarthÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½s crust has been constantly destroyed and created throughout its 4 5-billion-year history

Tectonic plates are generated at mid-oceanic ridges and sink at their edges in subduction zones or mountain collisions Continents assemble and break up in 100-hundred-million-year cycles Yet the ancient cores of continents, called cratons, have survived this violent past Their old rocks provide a window into the earliest days of EarthÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½s geological history

Cratons resemble icebergs floating in an ocean Their deep mantle roots, to a depth of 200 km (124 miles) or more, are largely unaffected by the asthenosphere into which they project The asthenosphere, a zone of Earth's mantle that lies beneath the tectonic plates and consists of several hundred kilometers of deformable rock, flows like putty and drives plate tectonics Why these roots are not destroyed by the tectonic plate engine is a puzzle

In the Sept 2 issue of the journal Nature, Anne Peslier, a Jacobs Technology scientist working at NASAÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and her colleagues, Alan Woodland and Marina Lazarov from the University of Frankfurt, and David Bell from Arizona State University, published key results on rocks from the deepest part of a cratonic root that offer an answer to this conundrum

These researchers analyzed water in samples found in diamond mines of southern Africa, where the Kaapvaal craton was pierced during the Cretaceous era (when dinosaurs roamed) by explosive magmas called kimberlites These magmas soared through the mantle and crust via deep fractures, bringing with them pieces of the rocks traversed, including diamonds

The mantle rocks analyzed by Peslier and colleagues were transported from as deep as 200 km below the surface, where they had been since their formation around 3 billion years ago These rocks are among the deepest and oldest that can be found on Earth

It has long been suspected that the composition and temperature of the cratons played a crucial role in their survival throughout geological times A lot of magma was extracted from the cratonic mantle early in EarthÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½s history, which removed much of its iron, aluminum and calcium These depletions make the cratonic roots less dense and enable them to float on the asthenosphere

ÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½Cratons are also relatively cold compared to the asthenosphere,ÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½ said Lazarov This provides a stiffness that contributes to their resistance and makes them less likely to be destroyed in the plate tectonic cycles

Still, with only temperature and buoyancy contributing to their stability, scientists have had a hard time explaining why cratons have survived for so long surrounded by the hot and dynamic asthenosphere

ÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½The water content of the main mineral of the mantle, olivine, is the key to cratonic root survival,ÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½ said Peslier

Water is present in the crystal structure of minerals from EarthÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½s mantle and it acts to soften the most abundant one, olivine Peslier and colleagues found that at the very base of the cratons, at the boundary with the asthenosphere, olivines contain hardly any water That makes these olivines very hard to deform or break up and helps explain why cratonic roots do not get removed by the asthenosphere: their dry olivines make them strong and resistant

Why the bottom of the cratonic mantle has dry olivines remains a matter of speculation
ÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½The peculiar chemical and physical conditions at these high pressures may render the fluids present at these depths rich in methane instead of water,ÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¿Ã‚Â½ said Woodland

Bell suggests that melts generated in the asthenosphere may pick up water while passing through the base of the cratonic root and bring it to the overlying shallow mantle Knowing how much water is present deep in terrestrial planets and moons, like Mars or Earth or its moon, is crucial to understanding their history, dynamics and volcanism

To view an image of one of the samples the research team analyzed, visit:

http://www nasa gov/centers/johnson/home/peridotite_imagefeature html

For more on NASA and agency programs, visit:

www nasa gov

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End of HSFNEWS Digest - 31 Aug 2010 to 2 Sep 2010 (#2010-97)

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